TOWN WAITS AND THEIR TUNES.

Annotations, [in brackets thus], by James Merryweather, and {in brackets thus} by Chris Gutteridge April 2006

FOOTNOTES

1
Quoted by M. Arthur F. Hill in his article on "Waits" in the Handbook of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. [True, but Hill, too, fails to provide the Neckham reference in full.]

2 From the Liber Niger Domus Regis which contains an account of the household establishment of Edward IV.

3 Thieves. [It could have read "for fyre [fire] or pickers or perelliz". Myers quotes "perelliz" rather than "pillars" ?= perils. As with Neckham, many versions exist and different interpretations are possible.]

10 I am by no means satisfied that this derivation is correct, but no one has been able to explain the term in any other way.

11 N and Q. 1. 3. 171.12 It is obvious that the Canterbury Waits were not very efficient.

13 Burney says "I remember very well in my musical life and have heard one of the four waits of Shrewsbury vamp a bass on all occasions, being unable to read one that was written." MS. quoted by Hill. This wait and Ravenscroft would have made a good pair.

15 It is only fair, however, to give the following from the Wakefield Cathedral Registers "The Waites of this town of Wakefield begane their Watch upon the 17th day of October in the year of our Lord God, 1670. Their names are as follows:-

Wm. Shaw,

Thos. Shaw fratres in unum."

Thomas Watson. It is hoped this fraternal spirit lasted!

16 See "The Drama," etc., in Leicester by William Kelly. This resolved the discord!

18 "Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor periods," by the Rev. Canon Morris, p. 348.19 A copy is in Cheetham's Library, Manchester. [I have a photocopy. It also has the words.] The words are given in "The Christmas Waits and Minstrels of bygone York" by T. P. Cooper.

22It is extraordinary to read of the proceedings of civic authorties [sic] at that period. They seem to have lost their heads entirely and Leicester is a typical instance. In 1836 that Corporation resolved that "the true dignity of the Mayoralty does not consist in antiquated pageantry," and so they proceeded to sell five maces, the silver plate, the waits' collars and other reliques. They were no worse than many other towns however.

23 These are in a very rare form illustrating a curious legend regarding beavers which will be found in the Itinerary of Giraldus Cambrensis. Everyman Edn., p. 108.

24 Canon Galpin has met with the old form of "wayte-pipe." "Pype" was gradually dropped and "wayt" only remained. No doubt this is the solution. He explained this at the meeting. [If we knew what Galpin said at the meeting, we might be able to appreciate the depth of knowledge about shawms at that time. Galpin's book Old English Instruments of Music (1910), 160-2 shows that he understood them a lot better than Bridge, here in 1928.]{The third edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, published in 1928, has the following entry: WAIT (Wayte, Waight), an obsolete musical instrument of the hautboy type used by WAITS (qv) or watchmen and identical with the earlier SHAWM.}25 Owen and Blakeway, History of Shrewsbury.26 N. and Q., v. ID, 494.

27 York Corporation Minutes, 3 Eliz. XXII.28 [I can find no footnote number in the text, but must still include the ref. And maintain the sequence] The Antiquary, vol. 32, p. 191. Historical MSS. Committee 14th Report.